If you?re looking for a pet that looks like a cross between a squirrel and a tribble, that comes in colors that sound like names for new Spice Girls, check out the chinchilla.
“They come in colors like violet, mosaic, ebony, and velvet,” said Janice Martin of Jacksonville in north Baltimore County. “They can be tan, beige, gray and white, though you never breed a white with a white; they absorb their babies.”
Genetic quirks aside, chinchillas “are very good pets. The chinchilla is the softest animal in the world,” said Martin. “The human hair follicle may have two or three hairs, but chinchillas have 150 hairs per follicle, so the hairs are very, very thin and soft. And bugs and mites can?t make it through the fur and down to the skin,” she said.
But for Martin, it wasn?t the chinch?s unbearable cuteness that made her the proud owner of six of these four-legged, rodent-like mammals, but a desire to recapture her youth.
“When I was a child, I saw one in a pet store and thought, ?Wow, this is the coolest animal ever!? Years later when I had a child who was interested in chinchillas I thought, here?s a chance to relive my childhood,” she said.
Her sons, Brian and Justin, also played a role in how the pets were named.
“My son was into watching ?Three?s Company? when the litter was born, hence Jack, Chrissy and Janet. The previous litter, my son was into basketball, so they were named Kobe, Bullet and Kwame. And we?re also into football, hence Raven and Lewis,” she said.
Janice got her first chinchilla at a pet store, but after doing research on the animals, learned it is better to seek out a breeder “because the ones at pet stores are typically the runts of the litter or they?re not as healthy as you?d buy from a breeder,” she said.
Janice notes that her chinchilla range in size from 8 to 12 inches long and weigh 3 to 5 pounds.
“They eat hay and pellets, and they love treats, like raisins, pieces of dried apple, peanut butter, fruits, nuts. If you put a raisin between your lips they?ll come up and grab it, take a nibble. They are very gentle,” she said.
“Chinchillas are the fourth-most common pocket pet,” said Martin?s veterinarian Dr. Kevin Gold, with the Chadwell Animal Hospital in Abdingdon.
If you?re going to get a chinchilla, Gold advises to “do your research first.”
While chinchillas can get along with other pets, Martin keeps her chinchillas in the basement, separated from her two dogs, a mixed terrier and a dachshund who stay upstairs.
“The dogs are hunting dogs and I?m afraid they would hunt the chinchillas,” she said.
On the Web
Janice Martin recommends these Web sites for people interested in learning more about chinchilla breeding, colors, nutrition, health, habitats, shows, and more:
» www.spoiledchins.net
» www.chinstation.com/forums/index.php
» www.mutationchinchillas.com
